Tag: depth of field

Secret to making a great Video

by North Coast Videographer, posted in Gear, Sydney cameraman, Tim Bradley

Secrets to better videos

What is the secret to making a great video? A great cameraman.
While having all the gear you will need on set is always that best option, Gear does not make the cameraman, the cameraman makes the gear. Don’t forget Gear is good, but vision, know-how and creativity is better.
If you know how to properly use your gear, you can produce beautiful work. Does using professional camera gear perform better? Yes. But simply having the best camera isn’t enough you need to know-how to use it.
Continue reading “Secret to making a great Video” →

A different point of view – Extreme wide angle and fisheye zooms

by North Coast Videographer, posted in Gear

Photography and Cinematography is about capturing a point of view or really your own point of view. To do this we all make decisions on location of the camera and subject as well as the time of day or night to shoot. Then when you are shooting you then need to decide what gear to use and one of the most critical factors to achieving a different look is what lens will I use?
Continue reading “A different point of view – Extreme wide angle and fisheye zooms” →

Move it with Michelle

by North Coast Videographer, posted in April 2016, Gear, Sony, Sydney cameraman, Tim Bradley

Michelle Bridges

Unless you have been living under a rock, surely almost everyone is familiar with the kickass reputation of Aussie TV personality and trainer Michelle Bridges.

Tim Bradley at Minds Eye Films certainly knows now that she applies this can-do attitude across all areas of her life, and especially so in her training programs.

Continue reading “Move it with Michelle” →

Setting up an Interview

by North Coast Videographer, posted in Epic, Gear, Red, Red One, Scarlet, Sydney cameraman, Tim Bradley

Setting up EpicI have a big interview series shoot, where we are interviewing heaps of legends from Australia’s film and TV industry. Shooting on a Red Epic to ensure nice short depth of field and and a cinematic feel to the finished video. Thanks to Eve Brown (Production Manager) for sitting in for the pre-light at the beautiful Theatre Royal.

We decided to shoot at 4K resolution with an f-stop of 2.8 to achieve a beautiful soft background. The rich red tones in the theatre look superb. I am looking forward to the next few days of shooting with the great team from The Milkbar.

Screen Aust Epic shoot

Screen Aust2

The lighting I am using are a mix of Lowel Tota lights and Dedolight or Dedo’s

Cinematography tools online by Red

by North Coast Videographer, posted in Epic, Red, Red One, Scarlet, Sydney cameraman, Tim Bradley

Epic and scarlet tools

Red has just added some tools for Cinematographers and Photographers that use Epic or Scarlet cameras to their web site. The new tools are 1. Crop Factor 2. Recording Time 3. Flicker Free Speeds 4. Depth of Field.

You can find the tools at http://www.red.com/tools/crop-factor

At the moment they are online but its rumoured that there may be an app version in the pipeline. I see the record time tool as the best as no other app seems to be able to do what this tool does.

Thanks you Red!

Epic online tool

For more about Tim Bradley please visit www.sydneycameraman.net.au or www.cams.net.au

Changing Film and TV industry & Stills Photography

by North Coast Videographer, posted in Canon, Pocket Wizard

Pocket Wizard Mini TT1 & Flex TT5The Film and TV industry is forever changing, but of late I have been getting a lot more stills work and stills portraiture work. It seems while companies are holding off making Video communications they are still spending on good old stills photography.

I have been having great fun shooting with the new Pocket Wizard remote flash triggers. I have the new MiniTT1 and  3 FlexTT5s as well as the AC3 flash zone controller. These are great, they have great range and are the most advanced flash triggers out today. They offer the ability to shoot well above the traditional flash sync speed – normally 1/200 or 1/250 of a second. In fact you can go all the way to 1/8000 of second, offering amazing shooting options and allowing smaller flash heads to be used to over power ambient light. This also allows you to shoot flash outdoors in full sun and work with a very shallow depth of field. The AC3 zone controller is a great time saver. You can adjust the flash power from on top of your camera in up to three zones meaning no more running back to your light to adjust the power up or down.

Another reason I enjoy the change of stills work is I can take a mile less gear. For a portrait shoot I can fit all I need into 1 Backpack and 1 Stand/tripod bag. Mind you I have the backpack jammed full. I normally carry a Canon 5D, 24-70 zoom, 70-200 zoom, Pocket Wizards, three Canon Speedlites, umbrellas, softboxes, stands and reflectors.

Another great feature is the my Canon 5D can connect to my iPad allowing a lovely way of reviewing shots.

Stills are a great change and keep the creative juices going!

Pocket Wizard AC3 zone controller Canon Nikon

For more about Tim Bradley

Red formats & dimensions

by North Coast Videographer, posted in Epic, Red, Red One, Scarlet

This chart shows the resolutions of the various RED formats and their corresponding dimensions in millimeters. Created by Danai Chutinaton. Thank you for the great information.
High Resolution Download: http://www.bluepano.com/hostedfiles/…ons-Key-LG.jpg

Field of View Comparator – Epic, Arri, Canon, F65

by North Coast Videographer, posted in Alexa, Arri, Black Magic, Canon, Epic, NAB, Panasonic, Red, Red One, Scarlet, Sony, XDcam

Ever wanted to know what the field of view of different cameras are and be able to compare them … well now you can.

Able Cine has made this great tool and they have recently added all the new cameras from NAB 2012. The new cameras include the Canon C300, C500, and 1DC. The C300 and C500′s sensor is almost exactly the same size as Super 35mm film; at 24.6×13.8mm it has a 28.2mm diagonal. The 1DC can record in both HD modes and in a 4K mode. The HD mode uses the full frame sensor area just like the 5D Mark III, however the 4K mode uses a smaller APS-H mode, like the 1D Mark 4. All these options are now available in our tool.

Additionally, they’ve added the Blackmagic Digital Cinema camera to the list, which has a sensor size somewhere between Super 16mm film and a 4/3rd sensor like on the AF100. At 15.8×8.9mm it has a 18.14 mm diagonal, which leads to a fair bit of cropping when compared to Super 35mm and full frame sensors. The Blackmagic Camera can record in both HD (ProRes, DNxHD, and uncompressed) as well a full 2.5K 12-bit Raw format. The Raw data is captured in Cinema DNG format at a resolution of 2432×1366, however the captured image area is the same, so you should get the same field of view in either mode.

Another Canon 5D …

by North Coast Videographer, posted in Canon, Epic, Red, Red One, Sony, XDcam

Yes ….. I have a Canon 5D Mark II as well as a Red One and Sony F800 cameras. But I only have it mainly for stills. I am really enjoying shooting some lovely stills, just wish the weather was better. I hoping to shoot a few long exposure tests. So lovely to have a short depth of field, very cinematic. I got a couple of Lenses with it, 24-70 F2.8 and 70-200 F2.8. I have not shot anything  yet that hasn’t been at 2.8 I just love shallow DoF.